Quick(?) Questions on Choice of Law & Venue
I'm not fully sure how those clauses work. Cites are welcome.
Anyway, I have two hypothetical scenarios to consider. In both cases,
let's say the software is licensed under an arbitrary free license;
perhaps the MIT X11 license.
FIRST SCENARIO
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Let's say there is a piece of software who's author, Arthur, resides in
France (or many other European countries with similar laws). A US
resident, Jim, decides to modify the software to use it as Nazi
propaganda. [How exactly he does this isn't important]. To avoid
defaming the original author, he makes it clear that the Nazi
propaganda part is added by him, does not reflect the view of the
original author, etc. Tom distributes this modification on the
Internet.
Arthur, naturally, is offended. Hate speech is illegal in France
(AFAIK). Assuming this is covered by said laws, can he use those laws
to stop Jim? What if there were a choice of law clause or a choice of
venue clause?
Lastly, if there is a choice of venue clause, can Arthur force Tom to
appear in France, where he could be arrested for violating French
hate-speech laws?
[You may want to point out that we shouldn't support hate speech. But
the DFSG is extremely clear; a license can't discriminate. And why
would, say, violating the censorship laws of China be any different? ]
SECOND SCENARIO
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OK, even if the thought of declaring something non-free because it
can't be used for hate speech leaves a bad taste in your mouth, let's
consider this one.
Let's take another piece of software. This time the author, John,
resides in the US. Someone in France (assuming France doesn't have a
DMCA equivalent; if it does, pick another country), Abel, decides to
modify the code to make it part of a DVD ripper. Abel distributes this
on the Internet.
Can John (possibly influenced by the DVD-CCA or MPAA) force Abel to
stop using the DMCA? If there were a choice of law or venue, could he?
Could John force Abel to show up in the US, where he would be arrested
for violating the DMCA?
I'm not quite sure the answers to these legal questions; however, I'm
pretty sure that any term that turns a "no" into a "yes" above is
non-free.
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